Open-Source Theatre

Monologuist Mike Daisey is known to many for a recent episode of This American Life that chronicled his investigation into labour practices at Foxconn in Shenzhen, China. Now he plans to release a transcript of the monologue on which the episode was based:

“The monologue will be released as a PDF, and it comes with very open licenses and you can perform it forever, without paying royalties, wherever you want,” Mr. Daisey said in a telephone interview. …

Mr. Daisey also said he felt that there was no need to stick to the monologue format and that future performers would be free to use the script in any form they choose, even as an opera adaptation. He did say that the file would come with a few requests, however, like, “It would be nice if you let me know where it is happening.”

Daisey deserves a lot of credit for the increasingpublicawareness of this issue and his decision to “open-source” his monologue is a fascinating next step. Can’t wait to get my hands on it.

UPDATE 2012-05-02: Then this happened. I wrote a paper about the whole fiasco; I will likely post some thoughts on it eventually. Needed acknowledgement in the meantime.